As the wine trade gathered at London’s Grosvenor Park Hotel last night for the annual International Wine Challenge Awards dinner the stream of medals came thick and fast with some notable wins this year.

The International Wine Challenge (IWC) has announced that for the first time producers and suppliers will now be able to source medals displaying the score of wines that achieve 90 points or more, translating as Silver, Gold and Trophy level awards.

At last night's 33rd annual International Wine Challenge dinner held at the Hilton Park Lane Hotel in London, The Wine Society was the bigger winner of the evening taking home IWC's Wine Merchant of the year award.

Last night at the annual International Wine Challenge awards dinner in London, five wines were crowned Champions and one wine took home the Champion of Champions award, recognised as some of the top gongs in the industry.

Seventeen Great Value awards were handed out at this year's International Wine Challenge, with Marks & Spencer being most awarded, taking home four awards, and dethroning Tesco which reigned for the past two years.

The consumer is the real winner as indicated by the number of medal winning wines on supermarket shelves. The International Wine Challenge awarded 317 medals to supermarket own-brand wines, with 28 of the wines taking home golds.

The International Wine Challenge 2016 opened the innings of Tranche two, at the Kia Oval, in South London on Tuesday, which will now be home to the IWC organisers, hard-working crew and judges for the next two weeks. With over 15,000 wines to assess across Tranche one, Tranche two, and the Sake Challenge, by more than 400 judges, in panels of up to 5, it's a feat of gargantuan proportions, requiring meticulous planning, and organization on a military scale.